Saturday, January 24, 2009

Cancel Your Cable Blog Launches as a New Voice for the Cord Cutting Movement










With the growing trend of TV viewers moving from cable television to online video a new voice has emerged to help navigate that transition. My friend Reed Kavner has launched, Cancel Your Cable, a new blog devoted to covering stories about watching TV over the Internet, without cable. In his first post, 2009 is the Year of the Connected Living Room, Reed provides an update from CES 2009 and highlights the current trends for this year as "ecotech, quasi-3D, and broadband connectivity in the living room."

Reed pointed out that he's not the first blogger to cancel cable then write about it. TVWeek's Daisy Whitney and PC Magazine's Sascha Segan are two notable predecessors. "I'm sure there are more," he said noting that, "It was Daisy's experiment with canceling her cable that first gave me the idea for a whole blog devoted to online cable alternatives."

Being a self-described journalism school dropout Reed took the idea and ran with it saying, "After two years of talking the web video talk, I've decided to walk the proverbial walk and cancel my cable. I am trying to document how it is possible to remove the monthly cable bill (for me, $80) from one's life and still have access to the same programing, sometimes for a nominal cost, but often for free. Device manufacturers and content producers are starting to get it and are continuously making it easier. I want to share this with consumers and promote the idea that cable providers are an unnecessary step in the delivery of television. When I say "cable", I'm really referring to any multichannel provider of television: cable, satellite, certain IPTV services."

The focus of "Cancel Your Cable "will be primarily on stories that are directly applicable to the consumer. There will be no talk of CDNs or ad networks. "I would like a friend of my mom's to be able to read the blog, understand it, learn something new, and ultimately feel comfortable freeing themselves from their cable provider."

The idea of life without cable may take some rewiring for some, but Reed, Daisy Whitney, Sascha Segan and many other have "cut the cord" and opted for a brighter future without the cost of a monthly cable bill. We've already seen many companies move into the living room to provide Internet video content which Reed covers in his blog. If you're interested in freeing yourself from the grip of the cable companies and explore the endless possibilities that online video has to offer, subscribe to Cancel Your Cable via RSS, email and follow the latest updates on Twitter.

Contact Reed at: reed ·at· cancelyourcable ·dot· com

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Also check out Tilzy.tv and Tubefilter News for guides and reviews of the latest web shows.